Remembering 'Boston Strong' 2013 champs

This story was excerpted from Ian Browne’s Red Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

BOSTON -- The Red Sox are fortunate enough to have won nine World Series titles throughout their existence.

However, one of those title-winning squads is different than the other eight, because the team truly became one with the city.

That distinction belongs to the 2013 team, which had a 10-year reunion on the Fenway field on Sunday -- fittingly one day ahead of the Boston Marathon.

When Boston was distraught by the bombings near the finish line of the marathon 10 years ago, and the four-day manhunt that followed, the Red Sox did what they could to put the city on their backs. Or was it the other way around?

Unsurprisingly, David Ortiz was the front man for the whole thing. Big Papi memorably dropped an expletive while firing up what had been a tense crowd on April 20, 2013 -- the first Sox home game after the bombings.

“These jerseys we’re wearing today don’t say Red Sox, they say Boston! This is our … city. Nobody is going to dictate our freedom. Stay strong!” Ortiz said as part of his pregame speech.

Before that day, Ortiz was already a Boston legend, but more in a sporting sense. That day put him into another stratosphere. And it’s why he was selected as the Grand Marshal for this year’s Boston Marathon.

“All I know is that when we walked out here, you could feel the tension from everybody,” Ortiz said Sunday. “Because it wasn’t far removed from what had just happened. It was the first game after the bombing. As a citizen, you feel exactly the same way as everybody out there was feeling.

“Ten years later, I know the impact of what I said had. To be honest with you, I’m so freaking proud that, you know, that it was taken [in a positive] way. Sometimes somebody needs to push that button. And I think I did.”

Ortiz was that team’s leader in the batter’s box all the way from April until he hit an eye-popping .688 in the World Series against the Cardinals, but he had plenty of tenacious teammates who helped him on and off the field.

Think back to that time, and you flash back to Jonny Gomes, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Will Middlebrooks coming up with the “Boston Strong” concept, which included hanging a jersey from the dugout that had “Boston 617 Strong” on it.

“Baseball and real life are obviously separate,” Gomes said. “I think the one thing that stands out most is, I think we jumped on the city’s back. They carried us. That ‘617,’ the ‘Boston Strong,’ that became a lifestyle that we followed.”

Beards also became the lifestyle. Nearly every player on the team grew them, with the best ones belonging to Mike Napoli, Gomes and David Ross.

“Right out of the gate, I challenged everyone in Spring Training to start growing out their playoff beards,” Gomes said. “I was like, ‘We’re not going to have the 5 o’clock shadows if we make the playoffs. We’re going to have full-blown beards.’”

Then there was the grit of Dustin Pedroia, who suffered a full UCL tear in his left thumb on Opening Day that season and had 193 hits in 160 games.

The Red Sox had grand designs of going deep into the playoffs, but they trailed 5-1 with five outs left in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series and appeared as if they’d go to Detroit, down 0-2 in the series, and face Justin Verlander in Game 3.

But then Ortiz happened. The eventual Hall of Fame slugger hit a game-tying grand slam in the eighth that changed the game and the entire postseason. When they trailed the Cardinals, 2-1, in the World Series and were trailing by a run halfway through Game 4, Ortiz gave a memorable dugout speech. And Gomes hit a three-run jack moments later. Boston didn’t trail again for the rest of the Fall Classic.

In the latter part of that season, Shane Victorino, a Bob Marley enthusiast, changed his walk-up song from “Buffalo Soldier” to “Three Little Birds.” The verse the fans chanted every time Victorino walked into the box was, “Every little thing is gonna be alright.” It felt spiritual for the fans to be able to sing those words at that time.

“As players, we got on the city’s back and they also got on our backs,” Victorino said. “What I tell people is that the greatest thing about it is the bond that was created. Championships are great, but that bond is what makes this one special.”